Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late - Highlights

The threat of a nuclear nightmare is still real, says Joe Cirincione. With unsecured stockpiles in Russia, the ever-present threat of terrorists getting hold of a bomb, and the possibility of a nuclear Iran, America and the world need to pay attention to this potentially catastrophic issue.

What if everything we believe about nuclear weapons is wrong? "Reexamine the facts and you'll see that the arguments for nuclear weapons aren't powerful; they're preposterous. They are an unpersuasive collection of wishful thinking held together by nothing more than fear and rationalization."

In the Cold War, the path to nuclear war always led through Moscow and Washington. In the second nuclear age the triggers to nuclear war are in Tel Aviv, Islamabad, Pyongyang, and in the future possibly Tehran, and possibly in other places too, because you can start a nuclear war even if you don't …